“Wooow, Paul, you look so strong!” I gasped, unable to formulate a less vapid remark in my state of awe.
Paul answered in a dead-serious tone, “I train every day to be able to protect you ladies.”
I poked Paul’s stomach experimentally.
Whoa, it’s rock-hard!
“Lady Neema, please behave in a lady-like manner.”
Who can remember their manners when there’s a real live eight-pack right in front of their face?! There’s no way I could possibly not touch it! I may never have the chance to touch an eight-pack again in my life! And, as if his sexy physique isn’t enough, each of Paul’s thighs has got to be as thick as my waist! His swim trunks obscured my view, but I can see well enough to hazard a guess that if he were to remove them, it would be very impressive indeed.
Just then, Louis walked over and praised Shinki and Paul’s bodies, saying, “Even as a fellow man, I have to admit that you both have enviably good bodies. What kind of training produces results like that?”
So you say, but your body is a thing of beauty as well, Louis! I suppose this is just proof that he’s been keeping up with his self-defense training as a member of the imperial family.
After this, Louis and Paul launched into a discussion about weight training, going into everything from exercise routines to diet choices. It was like listening to a couple of pro athletes discussing their training regimens.
“You’re all here already! My, you certainly are quick!” the retired empress called out as she arrived on the beach, her husband and the current emperor and empress following behind her.
The servants accompanying them carried a massive umbrella and several lounge chairs, which they quickly set up to create a scene reminiscent of some kind of tropical beach-resort vacation destination. It seemed the current and former emperors and their wives didn’t plan to swim, but they had changed into loose, airy clothing that looked easy to move in.
“Euche! Sache! Let’s play!” I invited.
Kaideetay lay down beside the retired empress without so much as looking at me, which I took to mean he didn’t feel like playing, so I didn’t bother calling out to him.
Before heading back into the water, I couldn’t forget to pick up Daux along the way!
Euche and Sache, being affiliated with water, charged ahead, diving eagerly into the ocean. I was curious to see what their bodies would feel like underwater, so once I caught up with them, I reached out to touch one of the blue pegasi’s legs… Only to discover that they didn’t have legs!
I reared back and looked at Sache in shock. She seemed to understand what I was so surprised about because she lifted one of her legs out of the water to show me.
“…When a part of your body is submerged, it melts into the water?”
I suppose it makes sense that since blue pegasi can transport themselves between any body of water, they can melt completely into the water.
Ever since I’d dragged him reluctantly into the water, Daux had been clinging onto me and refusing to let go, but that made it difficult to move and was becoming dangerous, so I really wanted him to back off.
“It’s okay, Daux. Euche and Sache are here. There’s no way they’ll let you drown,” I attempted to convince him, but Daux wordlessly shook his head and refused to loosen his grip.
At a loss, I looked to Sache for assistance.
Sache huffed out a puff of air, giving the impression she was sighing, “Fine, leave it to me.”
I’d barely had time to register the wave before it wrapped itself around Daux’s body and picked him up. Kai was also capable of manipulating water to do his bidding, so it went without saying that Sache and Euche could, too.
I watched to see what would become of Daux, and a moment later, the wave deposited him safely atop Euche’s back.
Sache glanced over at me, and her eyes seemed to say, “Next is your turn!”
Hey, hey! Grabbing me with your teeth and yanking is unnecessarily rough, don’t you think?!
With me on Sache’s back and Daux on Euche’s back, the two set off running out to sea.
That’s right, they were running on top of the water.
The feel of the wind and spray on my face was exhilarating.
As we came to a spot where the water was suddenly much darker than before, I felt as if my body was rising up, but it turned out that we were actually rapidly descending.
We’re going to crash into the surface of the water! I thought, slamming my eyes shut and bracing myself for the impact. Somewhere off to the side, Daux let out a cry that could’ve been either a shout of delight or a screech of terror.
The anticipated impact never came, and through my tightly shut eyelids, the light around us seemed to be becoming dimmer. That seemed strange to me, but when I opened my eyes to see what was going on, the entire world was blue.
It took me a minute to realize I was underwater.
It wasn’t a colorful underwater scene from some tropical paradise; it was a quiet and peaceful ocean. Fish swam across our path from time to time, but I couldn’t identify the species of fish.
Sache dove deeper and deeper.
I looked up, curious to see how deep we’d gotten, when I noticed something. I was pretty sure I was breathing normally, but there was no trail of bubbles floating up towards the surface when I exhaled…
I hadn’t bothered worrying about breathing since I was with water holy beasts. But now that I thought about it, I was curious where the air I breathed in was coming from and where the air I breathed out was going.
There wasn’t an air bubble around us like that time with Lars. I could feel the water all around us. But I couldn’t see the evidence of my breathing.
How mysterious…
I’m kind of disappointed that I can’t watch a stream of air bubbles dance up to the surface like with scuba diving.
I’d been so focused on looking up that I didn’t notice at first that Sache had stopped moving.
“Neema! Look at that!” Daux’s excited voice brought me back to my senses.
I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a forest. And I’m not talking about “a forest of seaweed.”
It was an honest-to-goodness forest like you’d find in the mountains somewhere! The trees swayed gently in the current, and their leaves were a deep green that almost sparkled in the light filtering down from above.
…Or are these leaves actually producing light of their own?
It wasn’t the eerie bluish-white light typically produced by photoluminescent deep-sea lifeforms, but a warm, faint green light. And there was a variety of marine life in this area, seemingly drawn by the light. There were fish, some kind of crustacean that looked almost like an insect, and…
Could those things that look like jellyfish actually be slimes?!
And, to top it all off, at that very moment, some kind of massive creature swam slowly by above us.
In terms of Earth animals, that thing has to be around the size of a blue whale!
It was so large that it was impossible to make out what kind of animal it might be.
“Wow! There are so many creatures I’ve never seen before!”
I told Sache that I wanted to get a bit closer so I could see better, and she obligingly steered us over to float directly above the forest.
Looking down at the underwater forest from above was another surreal experience I’d never had before. There was something almost mystical about the forest that made it seem even more beautiful than a coral reef.
Many fish hiding amongst the trees sported the bright colors and patterns you’d normally associate with tropical fish. They could hide amongst the dense foliage in the forest, whereas they would’ve stuck out like a sore thumb in any of the other scenery I’d seen so far in this ocean, which was probably why they’d made their home here.
Just then, the massive creature returned for another pass, so I asked Sache to take me closer to it so I could slake my curiosity. Its body was like a mix between a shark and a whale, but its face was truly shocking. A thick and durable shell encased the creature’s entire head, which looked like a samurai helmet. The teeth protruding from its huge mouth looked more like planks of wood than teeth. There were sharp-looking, tusk-like protrusions sticking out of the area around the creature’s mouth, further adding to the fierce appearance of its face.